A commentary on the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the murder of 270 people in the Pan Am 103 disaster.

Monday, 9 December 2013

Lockerbie: 25 years on - a message from Justice for Megrahi

[What follows is the text of a message sent yesterday to Justice for Megrahi signatory members and supporters by JFM’s secretary, Robert Forrester:]On 21 December 1988, Europe was subject to its most notorious peacetime assault. In a matter of moments, the Lockerbie atrocity took 270 lives. All our hearts go out in love and comradeship to those the victims left behind as they remember their losses of a quarter of a century ago.At Kamp van Zeist in 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted for the villainy behind Pan Am 103. In 2009, his second appeal supported by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) was dropped against a background of arguably dubious political double dealing which secured his repatriation to Libya and his family due to his terminal medical condition. He died in 2012, without having succeeded in clearing his name.As one of the country’s most renowned political and legal figures has put it: “There is not a lawyer in Scotland who believes he was guilty.” In 2011, a leading Scottish newspaper’s poll found that 52% of Scots agreed there should be an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing while 34% disagreed and 14% were unsure. A petition for an inquiry has been before the Scottish Parliament for three years now calling for such an inquiry. The petition continues to receive unanimous parliamentarian support. Allegations of criminality against police, forensic and Crown officials have been sidelined by the Scottish police and the Crown Office since August of this year because it is claimed that the allegations conflict with the Crown’s attempts to shore up the indefensible. Would the Crown Office, Police Scotland and the FBI be going on trips to Libya and Malta in their futile and secretive attempts to maintain the charade of implicating further Libyan nationals 25 years after the event were it not for the pressure they have found themselves under due to the overwhelming evidence presented by activists? Doubtful. What seems to be being presented is a cynical blind for public consumption.Precisely how is justice being served by such intransigence as is being displayed by both the Crown Office and the Scottish Government? What kind of justice is it that produces more victims than it started with? Many good and honest folk firmly believe that justice has not been either done or seen to be done in this tragic case. There has been no completion, nor has there been any finality. A resolution is required. The hearts and minds of the bereaved, the al-Megrahi family and all who invest their trust and faith in our justice system must be satisfied.In the last few weeks another flood of information further undermines the Crown Office and Scottish Government position. The Foreign Minister of Malta has declared his profound doubts over the conviction. Documentary evidence has been revealed which proves that a key witness in the case against Mr. Megrahi was paid $2 million by the American authorities. This mounting evidence, on top of the evidence the SCCRC relied on for the basis of the second appeal, only serves to prove that our justice system has failed.A third appeal must be referred. Methodical and persistent pressure can rectify the mistakes of dubious forensics, a bungled investigation and a misguided judgement. Something is seriously wrong in this case. Something seems deeply rotten in a state when public officials attempt to bluster their way out of having to deal with mass murder and a deranged court process to preserve a fantasy of reputation and as a result risk allowing those who may have committed this gross act to escape justice.As the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy approaches and the legacy of Nelson Mandela unfolds we demand no retribution or vengeance, we do not even seek to attribute blame, we simply ask that those who profess to serve justice do so without fear, favour or prejudice.Signatory members of Justice for MegrahiMs Kate Adie(Former Chief News Correspondent for BBC News).

Mr John Ashton(Author of Scotland’s Shame and Megrahi: You are my Jury and Co- author of Cover Up of Convenience).

Mr Mikhail Basmadjian (Actor, Malta).

Mr David Benson (Actor/author of the play Lockerbie: Unfinished Business).

8 comments:

MISSION LIFE WITH LOCKERBIE, 2013 - Go to new facts on ground ... (google translation, german/english):Intentional right delay in Switzerland and Scotland.

Why are the Scottish Parliament and all responsible Institutions afraid of the result after a forensic investigation of the decisive piece of evidence of the MST-13 timer fragment(PT-35)?

MEBO believes, because certain Official insiders know exactly what had happened 25 years ago and that the uncovering evidence of fraud against Libya and Abdelbaset al Megrahi would cause not only a financial but also a political earthquake.

Before the verdict against Abdelbaset al Megrahi and Libya not is revised , not another Government can be included in the Pan Am 103 investigation...

Abdelbaset Al Megrahi and Libya have nothing to do with the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie. Justice for the late Abdelbaset al Megrahi.

Google "the selective use of polygraphs" In January 1990, Interfor gave three of the baggage handlers polygraphs and two of them were judged as being deceitful when denying any involvement in baggage switching. However, neither the U.S., UK or German investigators showed any interest in the results, or in questioning the baggage handlers. Instead, the polygrapher, James Keefe, was hauled before a Washington grand jury, and, as he puts it, "They were bent on destroying my credibility -- not theirs" [the baggage handlers]. To Interfor, the lack of interest in the polygraph results and the attempt at intimidation of Keefe was the strongest evidence of a cover-up by the various government authorities who did not want their permissive role in the baggage switching to be revealed. http://killinghope.org/bblum6/panam.htm

"To Interfor, the lack of interest in the polygraph results and the attempt at intimidation of Keefe was the strongest evidence of a cover-up by the various government authorities who did not want their permissive role in the baggage switching to be revealed."

To Interfor, maybe, but not to me. While polygraphs looks more technical than bomb-dowsers, there is about equally much evidence that they work.

- - -

Like other matters, belief in polygraphs is a matter of what you put weight on. If "somebody says", "I think", "this fine company selling it claims" or "look at these success stories" or "they are based on this very scientific looking stuff" is enough, well, fine.

But until they e.g. have been released to a scientific community and proper trials have been set up and peer-reviewed -

- or at the very least, other experiments (again: open, reproducible and reviewed, not "somebody's claim") have confirmed that there are measurable and reliable physical signs when people "lie", as opposed to "being nervous", "having difficulties finding the right answer", "fearing for the outcome if even a truthful answer is given" and also showing the fine difference between "a lie and a half truth or incomplete/misleading answer" etc. etc. -

- it is beyond me why anyone would put trust in the thing.

Wikipedia's page did not exactly give me grounds for rethinking.

It is IMHO opinion a scandal that some courts admit this as evidence, but as a we know, courts are neither based on science nor mathematics.

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